Katerina Marcoulides, our newest faculty member in the quantitive/psychometric methods psychology program, joins us from the University of Florida where she was an Assistant Professor in Research and Evaluation Methodology. We asked her some questions about her teaching, research, and expectations.
Describe your research
My research focuses on the development of advanced modeling and data mining approaches, particularly for the analysis of complex longitudinal data. My substantive interests focus on the application of these techniques to the study of developmental processes, with an emphasis on economically disadvantaged immigrant children.
What interested you to go into Psychology as a field?
I found that Psychology had everything I was interested in all in one discipline. The initial pull for me was being able to study children and their development, then I was introduced to the interaction of biology and behavior, and finally what fascinated me most were all the quantitative methods enabling more discoveries to be made. This field is so exciting and varied that I knew I would never get bored.
What are you most excited about in your new position?
For many years I have been reading and referencing several faculty's research here at the University of Minnesota in my own scholarship. To now be given the opportunity to be a colleague and potentially collaborate with them is an honor. What is also important and exciting is the abundance of interdisciplinary research as well as the dedication to diversity and inclusion that is evident in the department and the university as a whole. To be involved in the education of and collaborative research with students who could in turn influence others is a legacy I hope to continue.
What do you enjoy most about teaching?
In quantitative courses, "a-ha" moments are very obvious and fulfilling to observe. What I find most rewarding, though, is when students want to learn even more. When the student comes in towards the end of the term and asks what I am teaching next because they want to take another class with me, or asks for advice on what they should take next because they are interested in the field, that is when I know that I have made an impact on them.
What are you most nervous about with regards to Minnesota's weather?
EVERYTHING! Having only lived in California, Arizona, Florida, and Cyprus, I knew I needed to educate myself, thus these past few months I have visited every website on how to dress for the Minnesota winters. I now know that layering and down-fill are important! But most of all, I am looking forward to a new set of adventures that you can only experience in the snow.
Katerina Marcoulides, our newest faculty member in the quantitive/psychometric methods psychology program, joins us from the University of Florida where she was an Assistant Professor in Research and Evaluation Methodology. We asked her some questions about her teaching, research, and expectations.